The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-06-16

light upon this most important dis
covery:
One of the most eminent and re-
spected Of the younger chemists Of
Europe, Alfred Gordon Salamon, a
pupil of Pasteur, and an authority
in the counsels of the English scien-
tifc societies, spoke to me on the
subject the other day, and showed
me copy of the New York Journal
Of Commerce of December G, which
contained a leading article decrying
the new product. He assured mn
that he had not the remotest inter-
est in the fortunes Of "saccharine,"
but as q chemist he had had inter-
est enough in the matter to 60 to the
factory at Magdeburg, study the
processes thoroughly, and secure
samples of the article, both in its
original state, and rs applied to
fruits, syrups and in the making of
sugar and candy. At his invitation
spent an hour at his laboratory in
Fenchurch avenue, and can only
hope that my account of his CONVEX
sation will be as Ineligible to scien-
lists, sugar men and the public gen.
orally as the talk itself was interest
ing and instructive to me.
To begin, ii is q mistake to call
"saccharine," or rs it is scientific
ally known, benzoyl sulphonic indie,
either an adulterant or an unworthy
chemical trick. 1t is great scien-
tific development-an honest pro-
duct, possessing marvellous proper
ties. None of these is injurious;
some, as will be shown later-on, are
in the highest degree valuable. 1t
is an independent thing to be
judged on its own merits, and no
more TO be condemned because of
its commercial effect on the sugar
industry than the electric light
principle was to be set aside because
it affected gas stocks.
The story of its discovery, like
that of so many other now familiar
secrets of science, is curious one.
A German chemist of distinction
named Fahlberg went to America
some ten years ago as an expert in
a customs case, which at the time
attracted much attention, and which
he finally won for his client as
against the United States Govern
ment. Fahlberg decided to remain
in America, and went, I believe, to
John Hopkins university, where he
became connected with the labora-
tory. He devoted himself wholly
to research among coal tar products,
or at least made this specially.
One evening, after long labor over
q variety Of these compounds, he
went to tea neglecting, in his haste,
to wash his hands. When he put
his hand to his mouth with his
bread he noticed strange, pungent
sweetness, which came from every
thing he touched. He ran back to
the laboratory and, thrusting a
finger into each of the numerous
vessels, at last found the one which
had produced the taste. Thus
"saccharine" was discovered. 1t
took long time and much hard
study to learn the philosophy of this
production; it has taken eight years
to reduce the manufacture of it to a
commercial basis.
1t was formerly supposed that the
physical quality of sweetness was
typified by the carbo-hydrates-that
is, the sugars and those starches
which by chemical treatment are
brought into the group. But FAIL
berg's discovery does away with this
old standard practically and scien-
tifically. 1t is 230 times sweeter
than the best cane sugar, equal to
unity. What is more extraordinary,
it differs wholly in principal from all
the carbohydrate group, that is,
from all other known sugars-in not
being susceptible to fermentation.
Every housewife knows how pre-
served fruit mildews, how jam
molds, and how yeast ferments and
spoils. All these operations are the
result of the action of organisms
feeding on the sugar, heretofore an
inseparable feature of all the sweet
ening processes. But you cannot
produce fermentation in "sacchar-
ine." TO the contrary, it is power
fully preservative-a quality it
possesses in common with all the
coal tar products. OF this l had
some curious illustrations from the
samples Mr.. Salamon had brought
with him from Magdeburg. There
were strawberries, for instance, put
up over year ago, which had never
been cooked, and which preserved
absolutely their flavor of the garden.
The jam had been boiled, but with
the non-fermenting 'saccharine'
there was no boiling away, no need
of skimming, which with ordinary
sugar involves loss of 10 percent.
1t is not necessary to speak of other
samples. Every one can see what
the effect must be, in all these lines
of production, Of substituting fol
ordinary sugars a sweetening power
which cannot ferment and which is
strongly preservative.
Another novel and interesting
1...al;4x. ,e IN. ex.. .,.ol.IaI L..